what are you shooting?

I mentioned above that I have an Olympus E-PL2 in addition to my Nikon. I've got a 14-42mm zoom and also a 40-150 zoom for the Olympus. A couple of observations compared to the Nikon and the Nikon lenses --

We bought the Olympus for my wife, but I use it quite a bit too because I really like the compact size. It has a smaller sensor than the APS-C size sensor on in most Nikon or Cannon SLR cameras, but it is nonetheless much larger than the sensor in any point-and-shoot camera. So even if using the Olympus in pont-and-shoot mode it captures much more digital information than a point and shoot.

I notice that the Olympus -- at least the E-PL3 that I have -- tends to tint toward red. But I shoot everything in RAW format so there is no problem at all adjusting the color to my liking in Photoshop. The Olympus zoom lenses drop off some in clarity on tight crops compared to the Nikon, but that isn't apples-for-apples because I often use prime lenses rather than zooms on the Nikon. So other than using the Olympus for really long zooms or tight cropping, it makes a really nice walking-around camera. I'm hoping to buy a 25mm non-zoom pancake lens for the Olympus one of these days. That would make it just about the perfect camera to always have handy in a jacket pocket for those times when I end up wishing I'd brought a decent camera but have only my cell phone.

Well, Prato, back in the ugly old days of film, (and there was no "auto" setting), we were told to take pictures, lots of them.

It's even a good idea to carry a small pocket notebook so you can experiment with shutter speed and f-stop and see how different settings make for different pictures.

Best part of digital photography? It's CHEAP. In the days of film, it was a darned expensive hobby.

sue -- thank you so much .

ed

Thanks guys

LR is great stuff. I don't use it myself. All I know is my wife and son swear by it. Didn't know it had a catalog.

That explains why my wife was able to find last year's hiking photos so fast...

Andrew

I started in the ancient days when an SLR camera cameras had an aperture setting, a shutter speed setting, a very simple center-weighted light meter that you had to learn to out-think from time to time when it gave bad advice. I think this is a pretty good way to learn the basics of exposure, lighting, and depth-of-field. So I'd suggest ignoring most of the fancy features on a modern digital SLR at first and experimenting for a few weeks with using manual settings of shutter speed and aperture with your light meter set to it's most basic center-weighted mode. Don't worry so much about taking perfect, or even especially interesting photographs. Instead take pictures of any old thing -- a fence post, you car in your driveway, etc. but use different settings so you come to understand how to intentionally blur your background while keeping your foreground in focus, how to stop down your aperture which will give you a longer range of things that are in focus, etc. This way you will quickly learn how aperture and shutter speed work together and can be used on purpose to control your image. It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. Especially with a digital camera, because you can take dozens of shots of the same thing to compare the effects of different settings - and it's all free.

There are many good books out there. Based on my own limited experience, I think you can't go wrong with anything by David Busch.

Jim

Started with a Canon AE-1 Program, currently using a Nikon D90 with a 70-300mm lens along with several other lenses, a Macro and a few primes.

I've also been spotted putting holes in defenseless paper targets with a M&P 45 and an FN FNS40